Google has given a £600,000 grant in a bid to tackle the rise of knife crime and end the glamorisation of violence online with YouTube and the Mayor of London.
The fund will help charities dealing with the challenges of how young and at-risk people use social media, and help with the process of identifying content and preventing it from reappearing.
Sadiq Khan said he was pleased that the leading online platforms have come together to better identify and remove content that incites violence much more quickly as London continues to see an increase of gang and knife crime.
Khan said: We have seen violence increase in London and across the country and I have been concerned about the number of videos online that glamourise gang violence and inflame tensions in communities.
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I called for social media companies to toughen up their guidelines around violent content and thats why I am pleased have been able to get leading online platforms, charities and music artists together as part of a commitment to better identify and remove content that incites violence much more quickly.
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This investment will help do that and plays a key role in the long-term public health approach I am leading in London to understand the complex causes of all types of violence and put in place measures to give communities the powers and resources to make key interventions in our battle to bear down on knife and violent crime.
The fund will help charities Catch22 and Redthread train more than 500 social and youth workers, teachers and other frontline professionals to deal with the challenges and opportunities of young peoples use of social media.
YouTube and Google have been working closely with the Mayors Office for Policing and Crime to tackle concerns about content shared online which can incite violence.
A talk being held at the YouTube Space London later today will involve a discussion about drill music, which has been blamed for fueling the surge or murders and other violent crimes.
Google managing director Ronan Harris said: We share the concern about the recent violence in London and do not want YouTube used to provoke violence.
Thats why today, with support from the Mayor of London, we are issuing a £600,000 grant to charities, Catch22 and Redthread, to support social media training and skills development so that they can more confidently help deal with these issues and promote the use of social media for good.
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We look forward to continuing our work with the Metropolitan Police, The Mayors Office for Policing and Crime, and community groups to be part of the solution to this problem.
Redthread said they were really pleased with the partnership and said they were committed to adopting a public health approach to youth violence.
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CEO John Poyton said: We see the link between social media content and violence in communities as a symptom of a wider, systemic problem and believe we must analyse the causes, diagnose the problem, look at what works to treat the symptoms and develop solutions to protect our young people.
This programme will allow us to extend the teachable moment upstream to support young people earlier, before crisis point.
By empowering young people and building the understanding of the trusted adults and professionals in their lives, we are enabling them to safely navigate their online as well as offline worlds.
Catch22 Director of engagement Beth Murray said: Negative activity on social media is a symptom, rather than a cause, of youth violence.
To have a real impact on Londons levels of youth violence we must tackle the cause; disenfranchised young people, who need positive people around them, a safe place to live, and something purposeful to do.
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The programme will also encourage young people to develop positive online content.
It will also support Khans #LondonNeedsYouAlive campaign.
DCS Mike West said: It is a priority for the Met to keep Londoners safe and reduce serious violence, and we are working hard to stop those using social media to incite violence.
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Music role models and social media have a hugely powerful and positive impact, but when social media is used in the wrong way the consequences can quite literally be deadly.
We are not seeking to suppress freedom of expression through any kind of music, our intention is to remove those videos that glorify violence and provoke criminality on the streets of London.
Partnership working is such a key part of how we address this, and we will continue to work with not only social media platforms but a range of organisations to explore how we can tackle the issue.
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